ITI - Intercultural Theatre Institute

Announcing ITI Artists-in-Residence: Afiszan Amat & James Anthony Carino (Jac)!

Afiszan & Jac’s residency project, What Weird World, is a participatory performance laboratory that seeks to deconstruct our “messy and weird” modern world through the lens of childhood perception. By combining the pedagogy of “Mantle of the Expert” with the visceral physical theatre of Human Tableaux, the project explores how we might “re-learn” our relationship with our environment. The work asks the audience to move beyond passive observation and become the literal architecture of the performer’s world.

Mark your calendars for the Open Sessions:

The What Weird World Lab
📅 Saturday, 26 September 2026
🕒 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Work-In-Progress Showing + Feedback
📅 Saturday, 24 October 2026
🕒 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
📅 Sunday, 25 October 2026
🕒 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Details to register will follow soon! Stay tuned!

Want to know when the next Residency@ITI Open Call will be? Email [email protected] or join our mailing list at iti.edu.sg/contact/mailing-list

Just one week left for international applicants to submit! Join us in January 2027 at the world’s premier intercultural conservatory, in Singapore.

❗️International deadline: 31 Aug
❗️Singaporean/PR: 30 Sep

Three years of rigorous, intercultural actor training - grounded in tradition, shaped for the contemporary stage. Scholarships and bursaries available.

Training like no other.

Apply now: [email protected]
Scholarships: https://mailchi.mp/iti/scholarship-2027

ITI’s work matters—and it is being recognised at the highest levels.

As part of our 25th anniversary documentary (details coming soon!), we had the privilege of interviewing President Tharman Shanmugaratnam about the power and possibilities of intercultural practice.

For 25 years, ITI has done what few institutions anywhere in the world attempt: bringing artists from different cultures together to train rigorously across Asian and contemporary performance traditions—and turning difference into a source of artistic discovery, shared understanding and new ways of imagining society.

President Tharman’s keen interest in this work affirmed what we have long believed: intercultural practice is not peripheral to Singapore’s future. In an increasingly divided world, the ability to engage deeply across cultures is vital—and ITI occupies a unique place in developing that capacity through the arts.

Our sincere thanks to President Tharman for his generosity, insight and recognition of ITI’s distinctive contribution to Singapore’s cultural landscape.

If you’re keen on advancing your artistry as a performer at one of the world’s most unique theatre conservatories, visit https://iti.edu.sg/admissions or contact us directly at [email protected]

Two weeks left to apply for our 2027 intake!

❗️International deadline: 31 Aug
❗️Singaporean/PR: 30 Sep

Three years of rigorous, intercultural actor training - grounded in tradition, shaped for the contemporary stage. Scholarships and bursaries available.

Training like no other.
Apply now: [email protected]
Scholarships: https://mailchi.mp/iti/scholarship-2027

Four weeks. Centuries of heritage. One historic first.

The Chinese art form Kunqu was introduced into ITI's conservatory training for the first time. For five weeks, our Year 1 and Year 2 students spent hours in class engaging with form's intricate physicality, embodying the textures of its musicality and literary grace – under the guidance of esteemed practitioner Xiao Xiangping (China/Sweden).

To conclude their practice, they showed excerpts from the iconic love story The Peony Pavilion – demonstrating the discipline, rigour and openness that intercultural actor training demands.

Our heartfelt thanks to Mr Xiao for his dedicated teaching, and to everyone who joined us to witness this milestone in our students’ training journey.

Swipe to see highlights from the presentation! ➡️

Want to train like them?
Enrol in the world’s premier intercultural conservatory.
📩 [email protected] or iti.edu.sg/admissions/

ITI – Intercultural Theatre Institute is pleased to collaborate with allianceforgood for the 2026 Business & Philanthropy Forum in Singapore, themed “Leaders at the Frontier: Insights into the Future.”

Much of the conversation will focus on AI, investment, climate and impact capital. We believe culture needs a seat at that table too — because the future isn’t built by capital and technology alone.

It’s shaped by imagination, by the stories we tell, by our ability to encounter difference.

For 25+ years, ITI has worked at this intersection — and we’re now asking bigger questions: how do we build sustainable cultural institutions?

How can philanthropy support long-term cultural value, not just projects?

How does Asia build its own models of cultural resilience?

The Forum brings together people with the means to fund, build and shape what comes next. ITI is looking forward to making sure arts and culture are part of that conversation.

A thriving future needs more than innovation.

It needs imagination.